Apples for Idunn (God of War)
by Farore5
Summary: Set two years after the events of God of War 4. Fimbulwinter blows a beautiful young goddess into the two men's life desperate to return home to Asgard. (The sequel to 'Laufey the Just.' I will try and sneak a few easter eggs and fluff for those of you who read my first fanfic. It is, however, not required to read before this short story.) Feedback feeds the author!
1. Kratos I

He could not recall the last time the cold bothered him.

How long ago must it have truly been?

How many hundreds of years ago?

A boy hidden underneath the shelter of a loving mother's embrace.

Or shivering in the darkness of one harsh winter's nights, clinging to a brother for warmth.

A brother whose face becomes harder and harder to remember throughout the centuries.

Kratos looks up from his work atop the roof of his house. The night chill of winter was becoming too harsh for him to sleep comfortably anymore. He found himself waking up still fatigued and irritable every morning, no matter how early he had fallen asleep the previous evening.

Fimbulwinter the dwarfs called this. In his time living within Midgard, the snow had never fallen this thick before. The fire pit inside their home was unable to fight off the bitter chill seeping in through the walls and roof. He had long since repaired the hole left from his fight with Freya's son.

Freya...

Before he allowed his mind to wonder upon the goddess and her dead son, he went back to work. Insulating the roof with moss and mud mixed with pine needles and leaves. He couldn't get the same consistency he remembered Her attaining when she did this all those years ago.

He allowed his mind to stay here, to stay on Her.

She danced into his memory as she always did whenever he was alone doing something she taught him how to do. As if leaning over his shoulders and watching him try to imitate how she would do it. Sometimes she would smile encouragingly, sometimes she would giggle at his mishaps.

He silently smoothed the clay like mixture across the cracks and layers of wood on their roof.

No, his roof.

She is gone.

He lays down a thick layer of moss over top the mud and firmly presses it down. He remembered how she looked, sitting on top this very spot. Mud in her fingernails, pine needles in her disheveled hair, sweat seeping through the back of her red dress as she worked silently. Was she humming? No, she only started singing after they...-

 _"Hello!?"_

Atreus shouts up to him from below. Frustration in the back of his voice, he must not have heard him calling the first few times.

Kratos grunts down at his son. "What is it boy?" He rasps.

His hands and arms are bloody, but Kratos isn't concerned.

A deer's limp body sat behind the boy. A young 12 point stag. Not entirely impressive but the kill looked clean and it only needed to feed them for the night.

 _"I don't know, you just looked weird sitting up there staring off into the void?"_ Atreus says while hauling the deer on to a wooden table they kept outside for skinning and preparing their meals.

" _You've been extra grouchy the last few weeks. I've noticed you're not really sleeping at night...-_ "

"How do you know this?" Kratos interrupted, finished with the roof and jumping down, approaching the boy.

As he neared him he realized how less of a boy he was starting to appear.

He was growing faster and faster with each year.

Atreus ignores his oncoming approach and plunges his dagger into the belly of the deer. Allowing the remaining blood from within the animal to spill out into a bucket beneath the table.

" _Thirteen years of me sleeping in a bed next to you snoring as loud as a bear. I don't know how mother did it, but since it's all I've ever known it's uncomfortably silent when I can't hear you at night._ " His voice was a mixture of concentration and irritation. Or maybe it was not?

His innocent juvenile voice was deepening with each passing year. Soon he would sound like a man whenever he spoke to him. Kratos wipes his muddy hands off and extended a hand out to Atreus's knife.

"Thirteen, huh?" He said to the boy.

Atreus' lips quickly pulled into his mouth as his teeth bit down onto them. Something his mother used to do. He was hiding a painfully bitter smile.

Faye was to blame for this. She would always make an impractical ruckus over his birthday every year. Baking him apples mixed with honey and seeds she forced him to harvest weeks before. Every year she refused to back down, even though his protests. The gifts grew more and more lavish the older their son got.

Since her death, Kratos has forgotten his last few birthdays. Today now adding yet another onto the pile.

"Go inside and wash up. I will prepare the meal tonight." He says to Atreus.

" _You don't have to._ " He says avoiding eye contact.

"Do as I say boy. If you wish to see what I have acquired for you."

Atreus looks up at him with his bright blue eyes. A smile threatening to creep onto his face before he composes himself. He failed, the smile began shining brightly through.

" _Yes sir._ " He says, handing him the knife and wiping his hands off as he walks away.

Kratos starts preparing the animal for a smoking pit.

He thinks of a glass bottle he found several months ago while he was out hunting. Once the weather permitted, he was going to enjoy it alone in a rocky pond not too far from the river by their house. The cold had frozen over the small lagoon two years ago, no end of this cruel weather was in sight. A selfish act of pleasure he would allow himself to take, relaxing in a place that soothed his soul. He'll forgo with his plan and instead, share it with Atreus tonight for his birthday.

After the meat was cooked and the rest stored underneath a thick layer of snow for the next day. Kratos enters his home to find Atreus talking with the severed head of Mimir. The interior of their home had seen better days. Before his wife would organize jars of spices, jams, and preserved vegetables in salted water on the shelves. She would hang herbs and flowers to dry above them on the ceiling beams filling the cabin with a sweet smelling aura to drown out the smell of three beings inhabiting the house below. Their beds always filled with fresh straw and soft moss, the pillows and blankets were kept washed and made.

It had been a few years since their house was that tidy. He entered the room and was greeted with the smell of musk, rotting flesh, and shit. The layer of dirt that covered the floor crunching slightly underneath his boots. He set the meat down onto their table, avoiding the plates left over from the night before, knocking a few dirty cups down onto the ground.

"Well, you've certainly been busy." The head spoke to him. "Don't think I've seen you all day?"

" _Thank you for cooking tonight."_ Atreus follows up, sitting down at the table in front of the mountain of smoked deer.

Kratos sat across from him silently and begins ripping apart chunks of meat away from the animal. The meat was cooked adequately, not overly seasoned as Atreus would normally prepare it. The boy had a pension for over seasoning their meals just as his mother once did.

"You know, I hate to nag but I can't remember the last time I've seen the two of you eat something other than meat these past few weeks," Mimir spoke at them from a shelf. "You can say goodbye to your teeth if you keep this sort of diet up."

" _What?_ " Atreus says with his mouth full. " _How can eating meat be bad for us?_ "

"Hmm," Kratos says swallowing. "He speaks the truth. I recall men of the sea struggling with sickness and tooth rot when they ate only fish for months on end."

He stands up from the table and walks over to the cellar where he once kept his blades and opens it up. He reaches down and grabs something wrapped up in a burlap cloth.

"We will worry about that tomorrow." He stands back up and walks over to Atreus at the table. Offering him the gift in his hand. "Tonight is a special night."

"Ahh Yes," Mimir spoke up. "Officially a teenager now eh?" He chuckled. "I remember those days, right brother?" He says cheerfully towards Kratos.

Kratos remains silent at the remark as his son unwraps the cloth from around the gift.

He held up the foggy glass bottle with a dull colored liquid in it. He smiles softly as if he was recalling a lighthearted memory from a few years ago.

" _Thank you, father_." He says warmly.

"Oh-ho!" Mimir says. "You Greeks best be careful if that's what I think it is!"

Atreus and Kratos turn their attention to face Mimir. "Speak head, what do you mean?" Kratos says. "It is only wine."

Atreus extracts the dry cork out with the tip of his knife. He brings the bottle up to smell it, only for a scowl and dry cough to follow behind the action. " _Whoa! What is that?_ " He says rubbing his nose. " _It hurts my chest just to smell it!_ "

Kratos snatches the bottle away from his son, concern cascading through his mind. Was it poisonous? Did he mistakenly offer his son poison, thinking it was a strange dark colored wine native to this land? He brings the bottle slowly to his nose and inhaled the scent. He quickly pulls away as the alcohol stings his senses.

Mimir can be heard laughing from the shelf. "You Greeks are a bit further along when it comes to crafting palatable beverages. We haven't quite worked out how to distill our wine. I'm willing to bet a few sips of that fermented fruit juice would knock a simple mortal flat on their back for a week." He winks slyly at Atreus. "But I'm sure a god such as yourself can handle a taste."

Atreus reaches for the bottle from his father's hands. A smile returning to his face as he lifted the bottle up. " _Thank you again_."

Kratos hums approvingly and motions for him to take the first sip. The teenager lifts the glass bottle up and raises his eyebrows.

" _To a journey's end?_ " He says with a hint of worry in his voice. He shuts his eyes and with a scowl already on his face, forces several gulps down.

"Ahh." Mimir panics while watching the boy take gulp number three. "I advise moderation little brother."

Atreus rips his mouth away from the bottle and coughed violently. Kratos would have distressed, if not for the laughter that spilled forth between each cough. " _Wow_!"

Kratos took the bottle away from his hands and took a more conservative gulp.

His forehead intensity wrinkled. It was as if they were drinking magma from the pits of Muspelheim.

As he pulls the bottle away and the burning in his throat began to settle.

Kratos could almost taste a hint of apples.


	2. Atreus I

It was as if his heart had packed its things up and decided it wanted to live inside his head. Atreus experienced headaches before thanks to his reoccurring sickness growing up. He remembered mother sitting next to him, keeping a damp cloth pressed down onto his head. Exchanging it every couple of minutes for a fresh cool one. All while reading softly to him or singing him a song to lull him back asleep. This headache was different, the pounding it caused was merciless. The pain spilled down into his burning throat, he felt dry, like he had gone days without water. He desperately needed someone to fetch him a cup of water. Maybe several cups of water.

Atreus opens his eyes still in between his dreams. That's right, mother would never bring him something to drink ever again. Instead, father sprawled out in his bed, face down, snoring loudly. A pile of vomit pooled next to the fire pit next to the two beds. Atreus revolted in disgust at the sight of it. But after the moisture from his saliva finally managed to coat the inside of his dehydrated mouth, he tasted the hint of stale vomit.

Perhaps that was his own doing?

He couldn't remember much of his birthday night. Just drinking, stories with Mimir, and laughter. His dry eyes protested the light peering in through the window. His back more so as he sat up and stabilized himself. Kratos still snoring away.

He was happy, it had been a while since his father slept this hard. His body probably in need of a long hard slumber. He remembered father sharing a few stories last night as well. The wine loosened his tongue for a while and he managed to string together parts of a story. He couldn't quite remember all of it. Something about searching the world for someone that left something behind? Or was he searching for something he himself lost? No, maybe that was Mimir's story?

Atreus pinches his fingers into the center of his forehead. The pain wasn't going away any time soon. He stood up slowly, avoiding the vomit on the floor. He would clean it up later, right now he needed something to drink.

Sluggishly, Atreus heads over to the shelves next to the front door. He reaches for a bucket and pulls it down. His body must be very fatigued, the bucket seemed heavier than normal. He lowers his arms and looks into the wooden bucket.

"Hello!" Mimir's severed head greets him from inside it.

"Waaaah!" Atreus shouts. Dropping the bucket and stumbling away from it.

Mimir's Head rolls out from the bucket onto the floor.

"Well good morning to you too little brother." He says.

Atreus quickly rushes over to pick him up. "Mimir, I'm..-" He loudly starts to say.

His father stirred in his sleep. His snoring paused for a second as he rolled onto his back. Atreus pulled his lips inside his mouth and pressed down with his teeth.

Kratos begins snoring again, this time even louder thanks in part to his new position.

Atreus sighed in relief and looks back at Mimir.

"I'm so sorry Mimir, I didn't realize you were in there. I don't remember much of last night, did I put you in here? I hope not if so I'm sorry about that too."

Mimir chucks. "No my boy that would be your even pleasant father who shoved me inside here after he got a wee upset over an exchange we had last night."

Atreus set the head back onto the shelf, making sure he looked comfortable. Well, as comfortable as a severed head can look anyhow.

"What did you say to him?" Atreus asked, dreading the idea of the two of them fighting.

"Oh, nothing that you need to worry yourself over. I just reminded him how drunk and lose his tongue was getting."

Atreus picked the bucket back up. His head was pounding so hard he struggled to pay attention to what Mimir was even saying.

He looked inside the bucket, he would need to rinse it out a few times in the river before he drank out of it now.

"Well whatever happened, I'm sorry you had to sleep in this last night. Ugh..-"

Atreus moves the bucket to one hand and presses his palm against his forehead again.

"Sorry, my head is killing me right now. I don't know what this is?" He worrying says. Could this be a new symptom of his sickness? He hasn't been sick since Freya cured him a few years ago.

"I can feel my heartbeat in my head and light hurts my eyes. My ears feel full and my body is extremely weak. Most of all I don't remember ever being this thirsty in my entire life."

Mimir chuckles quietly from the shelf. Atreus lifts an eyebrow at his reaction.

"Yes, little brother this is indeed a sickness. A sickness caused by you and you alone. They call this a hangover. And to be frank you are a wee bit too young to be suffering from one this bad."

Mimir's glowing eyes glance over to father in bed. "Just as I thought, you take after the old man when it comes to your tolerance for alcohol. Heh, Greeks, fiercest warriors in all the known world... Shit at keeping 'yer liquor down!" He loses himself in laughter.

Atreus was growing annoyed at the outburst, yet he remains respectful and doesn't walk away or silence him like his father probably would've done. Finally, the head comes down from his jolly high and looks back at him.

"Go get yourself something to drink, maybe find something that grows from the ground to eat while you're out. Something with a lot of starch or fiber. I'll watch over your old man while you're gone. Let him know where you went."

Atreus nods quietly and opens the door. His knife and bow were by the door. He leaves the bow behind, too tired to fit his quiver of arrows around himself. He sheathed his knife in his belt and walked out the front door, closing it gently as to not wake his father up.

* * *

He easily drank down the first two buckets worth of water. His body begins rejuvenating itself by the time he refilled the bucket a third time.

He breathed in the crisp cold air and relaxed his shoulders as he sat next to the river in the snow. Fimbulwinter or not, he loves how cold the weather had been getting the past few months. He enjoyed all the seasons, but something about the cold air pressing against his skin made him feel at home. He set the bucket down and leaned back with his arms extended behind his back, fingers disappearing into the fresh icy powder. His eyes close as snowflakes scatter onto his face and eyelashes.

He listened to the sounds of the forest. Winter always made it quiet and peaceful.

Deer clinging together for warmth, squirrels tucked away inside their trees sitting upon their treasure trove of acorns and seeds they collected year round.

The salmon in the river called to him. The dull pink fish was always the easiest for him to understand for some reason. They spoke in complete sentences and would hold the most interesting conversations with one another.

" _What am I going to do?_ " He hears a voice crying out.

His eyes shoot open, that wasn't a fish. That was a person.

He stands up and feels for his dagger, still there, but no bow, shit! He hisses for not bringing his weapon of choice out with him. Within his thoughts, his father's deep voice strung together a list of reasons why he would always be a foolish child.

Along with his mental image of his father disciplining him he hears someone crying. A girl? Oh, this was someone's thoughts he was hearing, not the sound of someone close by he realizes.

Atreus picks up His bucket and hesitates for a moment. He should go back home and tell father someone is close to our woods. But he also wanted to help whoever was in trouble.

" _I need you to grow, please. I don't want to die._ " The girl's voice weeps out.

He drops the bucket down and runs towards the voice.

It was the edge of the forest where he found her. His legs were aching from running so fast. The pounding inside his head had vanished he realizes, his heart instead beating violently in his chest as he sees the figure before him.

She looked around his same age, maybe a bit older? She was on her knees in the snow, praying?

She wasn't dressed properly for the environment. A long red string weaved in an intricate pattern wrapped around her feet in place of proper shoes. Her dress was as white as the snow she sat in, oddly there was no dirt that gathered at the bottom. It was modestly designed but the white silk left little to the imagination as it cascaded down her body. Long sleeves draped down from her skinny wrists as she held her hands together in prayer. The extra fabric bowled out down her hands, it was almost the same length as the dress itself. The edges had a pattern stitched around the seams.

Red apples were scattered with green ivy throughout.

Atreus had never seen blonde hair up close before. Hers was the first, it was long and thick, braided loosely at the side. Small strands escaped the braid and feathered down her face. Her lips were bizarrely thin as if whoever created her ran out of time and simply drew two skinny pink solid lines right underneath her nose.

She made his throat feel hot as he looked at her, his heart was still racing from his jog here.

" _I'm doing this right, right?_ " She says softly keeping her eyes shut. " _Why isn't this working?_ " She sighed out loudly.

"Is everything okay?" Atreus finally musters up the courage to say.

She opened her green eyes and gasped at Atreus from the ground. Stuttering several panicked noises towards him.

"Sorry for startling you. I live around here and heard someone crying. Is everything alright?"

" _Oh, uhhhh yes! Yes, everything is just fine._ " She started slowly backpedaling away from him.

She couldn't be that much older than him. Yet her voice, while soft and kind, sounded mature like an adult.

"You're praying, right?" He asked. She nodded her head vigorously and wrapped her arms around herself.

" _Y-Yes, I was asking the Allfather to, to bless me with courage and strategy._ " She stutters out nervously.

"Oh, those are great things to ask for." Atreus follows up. "But Odin isn't who you should be praying for. Those blessings belonged to Tyr."

The girl suddenly stops fidgeting. She narrowed her eyes for a moment.

" _Who are you?_ " She says cautiously.

"My name is Atreus." He says warmly and free of concern. It was difficult to read her expression. Finally, her face softened and she leaned forwards at him as he spoke.

"Again, I'm sorry for scaring you."

" _No, no it's okay._ " She says kindly at him. _"I'm just a little lost, and hungry. I was told there was an apple tree inside this forest."_

"Apple tree?" Atreus asked. Last time he remembered eating an apple was two years ago while on the journey to scatter mother's ashes. The time before that was the final baked apple he'll probably ever eat on his tenth birthday. "I've lived here all my life and have never seen one in these woods."

She sighs.

"B-But then again I've never actively looked for one." He follows up. He wasn't thinking before the words started spilling out from his mouth.

"I, I can help you look for one if you want?"

A smile drifts across the girls face.

" _You will?_ "


	3. Kratos II

He dreams of a great many things.

Of Calliope playing her flute underneath the shade of a tree. Her small frail fingers moving gracefully along the wooden instrument he made for her. Her music soothing his weary soul. The olive-skinned girl misses a note and puffs air out through her wide-brimmed nose along with an innocent giggle.

"Keep going baby," Lysandra says gently while sitting in between his legs, her back leaning against his bare chest. A bonfire was close by, but he was unable to feel the heat that came from it. While Calliope keeps her eyes closed concentrating on the beautiful song, Lysandra turns to face him. Slowly she stands up, extending a sandy hand out towards Kratos. He encloses both his hands around her offering and rises to stand with her.

Lysandra, his anchor, his Spartan wildfire. She lifted an eyebrow upwards to him. "Dance with me." She demands, reaching her other hand for his belt and pulling him closer to her.

"I do not dance." He says back to her. Their daughter's song begins transitioning from a simple tune suitable for a child's talent to a more elaborate melody a bard with a lifetime of experience would play.

"I don't care, I told you to dance with me." She playfully poked his cheek, confidence radiating from her dark painted eyes. She was always so stunning, seductive, and hard to keep up with. No matter how high he got, she would pull him back down to earth. Her pampered tan skin glowing in the light of the fire. He frowned his eyebrows at her, still retaining a smile on his face. He never knew he could love a woman this much.

Pandora was now suddenly the one playing the wooden flute. Her large eyes kept shut as she continued the same song. Her asymmetric mismatched hair covering half of her face as she leans into the intensity of the music.

The fire cracked loudly as a log collapsed in on itself.

Before Kratos turned to contemplate what had just happened Lysandra twists his chin to face her again.

Faye's blue eyes were looking up at him. " _Oh._ " She stutters out shyly, removing her hand from his face and back onto his chest. Her hands were soft and cool against his dry hot flesh. " _You don't have to dance if you don't want to._ " She fidgets with his harness, her milky white skin unable to hide the blood rushing to her freckled face. She smiled through her blushing sincerity and pulled her lips inside her mouth for a moment.

The way she smiles whenever she looked upon him, eyes free of fear, only adoration.

How?

How could a monster such as himself cause a creature so beautiful to love him this much? She was so pure, a light in his dark world. He quickly looked down to their joined hands. Was he holding her too tightly? He needed to soften his edges while around her, stay in complete control else he fears he would break her. She made him want to be a better man. She made him remember so much. She made him feel so many things all at once, feelings he forgot how to govern. Feeling this close to someone was dangerous, life was fleeting but not for him. His mind clashed with itself whenever he was this close to her. Should he preserve her, or devour her? " _I won't force you to do something you don't feel comfortable doing. But, if you ever change your..-_ "

She vanishes from his arms.

Atreus walks up to the wooden instrument and picks it up in his hands to examine it. He didn't realize Pandora had disappeared along with the music.

It was just the two of them left.

Slowly his son brings the flute to his mouth.

Kratos rushes towards the boy as his lips begin playing the same song, picking up where the others before him left off.

 **"NO!"** He shouts.

* * *

His eyes open slowly.

The afternoon light seeping in through the window of his home stung his vision. Kratos groaned slightly as he lifted himself upwards. His body was dehydrated. Foolishly he forgot to stay hydrated while drinking last night.

"Good afternoon!" Mimir shouted at him from atop a shelf.

That is not where he should be.

As Kratos swings his legs out and places his feet onto the ground he steps into something wet and chunky.

"Ahh, yes," Mimir says. "Watch your step there eh?" Kratos sighs as he looks down. Remembering the boy's nausea from last night. He grumbles and ignores the fact, standing up and walking towards the door. He needed to piss and get a drink of water. He yanked Mimir off the shelf and attached him to his belt and threw the door open. Summoning the leviathan, wherever it was. It sounded as if it were left high in a tree. It snapped into his hand and he quickly hooked it onto his back.

"When did he leave?" Kratos spoke at Mimir as he walked towards the river.

"He woke several hours before you. Poor lad was worried his sickness returned. Turns out he was experiencing his first hangover."

Kratos puffed air through his nose as he found a tree and relieved himself on it.

"He has been gone quite a while." Mimir says as Kratos plunges his cupped hands back into the river and leans forward to drink the water pooled in his hands. "Don't suppose we ought to go search for him?"

The icy water quenched his body. He drank two more handfuls of water before he bothered to respond to Odin's former adviser.

"Atreus is fine. He can handle himself."

His confidence in his son continued to grow. After the journey, Faye set them out on they returned home and began daily training rituals together. Atreus did not inherit his strength, but his affinity for combat still left him impressed. He could navigate almost every obstacle he set in front of the child. Using his wit, long ranged combat, and improving knife skills to slip away from danger. He still had quite a ways to go. But Kratos was to blame for that. If only he had started his training at a much younger age...

"Ah, but can he handle himself against everything and anyone that be out there?" Mimir interrupted his thoughts.

"Freya's mark still remains," Kratos says standing up.

If the head was questioning his concern for his son's safety perhaps he needed to go back inside the bucket.

"Ahh. I see." Mimir said. "Breakfast then?"

Kratos hums in agreement.

* * *

When he returns back to the house he sees Atreus standing in the garden.

He wasn't alone.

Kratos resisted the urge to sprint towards his son and simply increased his pace as he approached the boy. He was with a girl. She was still a child with impossible refinement for a world as cruel as this. A witch? She was wearing what appears to be a silk nightgown without any shoes in this bitter cold.

"Oh, there he is!" Atreus says warmly. "Father, come meet..-"

"What do you want from us?" Kratos barks down to the girl.

She recoiled from his actions, leaning slightly into his son. Kratos narrows his eyes furiously.

"No, no it's alright!" Atreus speaks between them. "I found her in our woods, she was looking for something and just got lost."

He pointed to a pile of red apples spilling out of a bucket. "Look what we found! I didn't realize our forest had an apple tree growing in it."

Kratos inspected the bucket suspiciously. The closest apple tree was a full week's journey from here.

He would know, he made the tip once a year for a full decade.

"Leave. Find what you want without us." Kratos says, trying to calm his temper. Something more was at play here.

The girl's face was hard to read while she cowered behind Atreus. " _I'm looking for a golden apple._ "

Mimir remains oddly silent during all this. Usually, the head would have stuck his nose in the middle of situations like this by now.

"Oh I'm sorry, let me introduce you. This is my father." Atreus said backing away from the girl allowing him to look upon her again.

Whatever spell she was using made her appear around sixteen.

"Father this is..." Atreus' eyes widened as his mouth kept ajar for a moment. "Oh wow, I- I don't even think I even asked for your name yet?"

The boy fumbled a hand to his face. "That's, embarrassing."

The girl giggled at him and places a hand casually upon his son's upper arm. Kratos held back a growl at her action.

" _No it's okay, everything has just been going by so fast I didn't realize it myself!_ " She brought both her hands together in front of her and lower her head at Kratos.

" _My name is Idunn._ "

Atreus' eyes widened in horror for a split moment. He quickly readjusted his face back to normal, as if hoping Kratos didn't see the expression. He did see it.

"The goddess Idunn?" Mimir finally spoke up.

Idunn gasped. " _Mimir?_ " She looked around not realizing he was behind Kratos. " _H-How? Where are you?_ "

Kratos furiously summoned his axe to his hands. "Leave, now." He snarled at the girl.

"No father wait!" Atreus protested.

" **Quiet!** " He yells at his son, probably louder than necessary. But he would worry about that later.

The girl's chin begins trembling as she backs away from them.

"You will leave this place and never return. Understand?" He says tightening his grip onto the Leviathan.

She turns away with fear in her eyes, looking at Atreus one final time before she flees into the forest.

Kratos watches her intensely until he was unable to see her off in the distance.

Atreus was furious. "Why do you..!-"

Kratos drops the axe onto the ground and grips the boy's shoulder. "Did she see you first?"

Atreus ruffled his forehead in confusion. "What? No, I heard crying because of my powers. I ran to see what was causing it and found her."

He was telling the truth, he could tell.

"I didn't know she was a god, she was being really nice and needed help."

Kratos releases the boy.

"I thought she was just looking for apples to feed her family. So I offered to help."

"That's the goddess Idunn Little brother, you know who her family is? You know what those apples do?" Mimir says.

"Yes, I know." Atreus spits out. "I didn't realize she was...- I, I don't think she was doing anything all that evil though? She was just being so nice so, I figured I would help."

This is a trap and a lazy one at that. Brute force didn't work with the sons of Thor. Now instead Odin sends young beautiful women to entrance them?

"Odin is after us boy. You must not fall for his tricks."

Atreus crosses his arms over his chest. "You really think he would send a little girl after us?" He says with a hint of pompousness in his voice. The trap was working on one of them Kratos realized. "She's just lost in Midgard, so what if she's a goddess?"

"Honey lures more bees than fire," Mimir says to the boy.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Atreus asked.

Mimir chuckles. "Perhaps your dad can speak to you a little later about all this?"

Kratos grumbles annoyingly, looking at the pile of apples.


	4. Atreus II

The rapid current threated to pull him underneath its frigid surface. His toes curled confidently into the dirt resting on the floor of the thigh-high water. In his hands, he kept a firm grip onto the shaft of an arrow. The beautiful yet deadly silver arrowhead aimed downward to the water.

It almost felt like he was cheating.

With his eyes closed, he listens to the salmon hurrying closer and closer to him. Their chatting overlapping one another ensured him just how close they were getting. Something to the right of them frightened them for a split moment. Good, they don't see his legs yet. He reaches to his quiver and pulls out another arrow. He holds steady as the school approaches him. His eyes open and he plunges both arms down into the water.

He finishes lacing his boots back up. Two fat fish strung together rest on the ground next to him. He would prefer to dry off a little while longer but the snow was starting to fall heavier and it wouldn't stop till late in the evening. He stands up and makes his way back to the house with their dinner. Not before hearing something rustling in the forest. He pauses, that was too big to be a rabbit or squirrel. He takes a detour to check it out.

A golden fox. It was beautiful and reminded him of his mother. She would often wear a cloak topped with their golden yellow fur adorning it. A selfish feeling of desire overcame him, he already had his dinner hanging behind him. Why kill another creature? The yellowtail whipped side to side. He remembered the one that draped down mother's cloak. How when she leaned over to kiss him goodnight it would sometimes drape down and tickle his skin. He wanted that trophy.

He removes the bow from around his body and reaches up to his quiver slowly. Nocking an arrow into the string, pulling it back as far as he can.

" _Wait, come back!_ " He hears a familiar voice calling out.

The fox darts away into the forest before he loosed his arrow.

Idunn rushes out from a shrubbery where the fox was just sitting.

She looks around frantically.

" _Tell me where they are!_ " She shouts to nobody.

Atreus relaxes his aim but doesn't lower his weapon.

It had been 3 weeks since he last saw her. The day after his birthday. The girl all alone in the woods. The two of them found an apple tree and sat in its branches talking all morning, before gathering as many fruits as they could carry and bring them back home.

Idunn looks around, her green eyes scanned out in front of her until she turned to her right and spotted him.

She was so pretty, his father was right. It couldn't be natural to look like that. It was a trick.

The goddess of everlasting youth, Idunn. Keeper of the magic apples that held rejuvenating powers, keeping the Aesir gods form ever aging.

Why was she down here on Midgard? Father thinks she was sent to seduce him. He recoiled at the following awkward conversation of what exactly seduction means. As much as he hated to admit it, father was right. The way he feels when he was around her. It did open up a lot of holes for enemies to strike. He won't allow that to happen again.

He won't let his guard down while he was around her.

She's gone. Where did she go?

" _It's you again!_ " She said behind him.

Atreus gasped and dropped the arrow he had still pressed against the bow. She pulls him back away from the falling sharp object. The arrowhead plunged into the snowy footprints where he was just standing.

"Don't touch me!" Atreus shrugged his shoulder away from her. Spinning around to face her aggressively. He squeezes the bow in his hands.

" _I'm sorry._ " She says.

"We told you to never come back here. Leave before..."

Before what? He asks himself.

Would he kill her? No, of course not. But what if she hurt him? His father would definitely hunt her down. What if they hurt her? Would her family hunt them down? Was this the cycle his father drilled into his head so much?

Her facial expression changed from fear to confusion.

Shit, he never finished threatening her.

" _Atreus?_ " She says. " _Your name was Atreus right?_ "

" **Quite!** " Atreus yells, trying to sound as intimidating as possible.

She recoils away from him.

Imitating his father, he realized, was difficult to do.

"I'm not helping the Aesir gods. Your kind can rot for all I care!"

She kept quiet as he continued.

"What's wrong? Odin got sick of your stupid apples and kicked you out?" He wrinkled his forehead as he stood up straight. He was almost her same height this way. "You're not welcome here, go away!"

Tears began streaming down her cheeks. She sniffed in a stuttering breath. Before kneeling down into the snow and crying into her hands.

Atreus stood there, flabbergasted.

He reaches for her but pulls away at first. He hesitated before finally putting his bow away and turning his nose high into the air while he clenches his fist by his side.

"Go on!" He closes his eyes painfully. "Cry, see if I care?! Stand up. You still need to leave!"

" _Why is everyone all of a sudden so angry with me? It's not my fault, I promise. I just want to make people happy again._ " She whimpers into her hands.

" _I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry for whatever I did to cause this. I just want to feed everyone and make them smile again._ "

He wasn't sure if any of that was directed towards him. He peeks at her below him, she was truly sobbing. But father said sometimes women use tears as a weapon just as much as... He gulps, looking at the girl on her knees below him.

Idunn pulls her hands away from her face. A long river of snot was dripping down over her thin lips onto her chin. Hesitantly, Atreus pulls his lips into his mouth and unclenches his fist a little.

She looks up at him. Her once pretty face all puffy, wet, and red.

Her eyes were still so, so. Not beautiful, no that's not the right word for them. They were vast, like an open field of grass to run and roll in. Or a large oak tree, branches screaming to be climbed up and played in.

She sniffed in one more time.

" _I wasn't ready for Fimbulwinter, it came too early. It's my own fault. You can kill me if you want. It'll probably hurt a lot less than what Odin has planned for me since they won't grow._ "

"What are you talking about?" He finally asks her.

" _My apples. I can't grow them anymore. No matter what realm, no matter how many times I cast the spell. Each tree that grows, it's just regular apples._ "

Tears still fall down her face, but she's no longer in hysterics. " _Odin thinks I am doing it on purpose. He banished me to Midgard and said if I didn't have any by the time he summons me again he'll turn me into an acorn and plant me in his garden._ "

He paused his breathing. What is he even doing?

She was so sweet and warm to him, and in return, he was cold and threatening. Was, was this how father use to treat mother? It must have been. Atreus suddenly felt sick to his stomach, this isn't him. This isn't how he wanted to treat people. Maybe he could still salvage some form of friendship with her? Why did he listen to his father in this regard? Father didn't know how to speak to anyone, let alone girls. He never really saw him speak to mother all that much, and after their discovery in Jotunheim she apparently never spoke to him either.

Idunn isn't a threat.

Right now he was the only threat here.

Atreus bends over and reaches a hand out to her.

She looks at it for a moment. " _Are you going to kill me?_ "

"No." He says. "No one is going to kill you."

She reaches for his hand and he helps her to her feet. Father will have to get over it. He will apologize later. They already took in one of Odin's former entourage. She's not going to hurt them and he won't let anyone hurt her.

Idunn wipes her tears and nods to Atreus. "Thank you. I'm sorry for causing you trouble. I'm not used to being around humans."

She doesn't realize he is a god or a giant. "I'm not actually a..-"

" _ **No, don't!**_ " She screams.

Suddenly, Atreus felt a cold stinging sensation in his side. He wasn't able to turn around and see who or what stabbed him before his vision began fading. He thought he saw a fox from the corner of his eye before darkness overcame him.


	5. Kratos III

" _I swear to you brother I've told you all that I know. She grows apple trees, collects all the golden ones that grow from it and presents them to the Aesir at court twice a month. She's got no other notable powers, no personality really. She's just a wee lass with a heart of gold, tiny tits, and big luscious lips. She's got an older brother. The court's minstrel. Oh, what's his name again? Some tall dainty fellow with a pretty face and alluring voice. Lines his eyes with so much black paint- trying to look like all those dead foxes he wears on his cloak._

 _Sigyn._

 _The two were inseparable, some even rumored their relationship crossed over into, ah, how you say, a more taboo boundary. But those were only rumors._ " Mimir said looking up at Kratos with dull glowing eyes.

" _Her father was a dwarf, or was it a troll? I don't remember because it was never important. It was said he could strike a man down as fiercely as a god. And her mother, some goddess. I don't remember, she was nobody at court. 'Tis a stretch to even considered her a goddess really. Once Odin discovered the toddler's talent in growing the apples of rejuvenation he had the two parents killed. The brother was already brainwashed into obeying Odin's every command. He and a hand full of servants watch over the young girl. She's not even that old, maybe 200 years give or take?_ "

Kratos rolled his shoulder as he continued holding the head out in front of him.

"Why would she be in Midgard?" He asked Mimir.

" _I don't know if she were here so we could ask her. But you wasted no time scaring the poor lass away 'fore we could get a proper answer out of her._ "

Kratos grumbled annoyingly. Whether or not the head had a point was not important. It was all still so suspiciously convenient.

"Enough," Kratos says. Opening the front door of the home to check the sun's position. His son would be home soon from fishing.

For the past few weeks, Kratos refuses to allow Atreus to venture out into the woods unaccompanied. Until he could ensure they were truly alone and no other gods or goddess were sneaking around. He would not lose his son.

He kept Mimir home with the boy to watch over him while he hunted and searched for intruders. Threatening the head if he didn't inform him of anything suspicious that happened to Atreus while he was away. Mimir complied, but it gave him little opportunity to discuss what transpired weeks ago, until now.

In the end, he found there was no one else with them in their woods. It had almost been a month since that day.

Kratos would protect his son, but he refused to keep him in a cage. With the threat elapsed, he allowed the boy permission to hunt and explore alone once again.

" _I watched you eat a few of them brother. You've felt how effective they are. I doubt they'd just let her wander off._ "

"Who was **She** working with?" Kratos asked. Ignoring the last remark and instead, bringing _this_ up again."

" _I never met her Kratos_ ," Mimir said looking directly into his eyes. The yellow stones were shining brightly and didn't flicker.

"But you knew of her. So did the dwarfs. Who else? Freya? How long was Baldur was after her?"

" _I was nailed to a fucking tree! For over a century!_ " Mimir shouts at him, dangling by the strings wrapped around his head.

" _For the last time, I don't know anything more about the damn giantess!_ "

Kratos snarls at the head, his eyes looking around the house for a bucket. Mimir couldn't drown, they discovered this in Tyr's temple. Next time he shoves him in a bucket he would fill it up. Then see how long until he snaps and finally remembers more.

Faye.

Why didn't she tell him anything?

No, he won't fall into this pit again. He will only remember the woman he knew. Not the woman she hid from him.

He hid quite a bit from her as well. But, if she knew of their future...

The sound of a tree branch collapsing to the ground interrupted his thoughts. The snow had begun falling at a much heavier rate. Atreus wasn't home yet.

Perhaps it was a mixture of fear of losing his son, mixed with the previous quick discussion on his wife. But something ate at Kratos' soul, something didn't feel right. He summons his axe and clicks Mimir onto his hip as he ventures into the snow to search for his son. It was pointless to search for footprints.

* * *

"Atreus!" He yells. The snow was falling sideways down onto him.

For hours he searched the woods for his son. Finally, he sees something up ahead. A purple glowing aura. With his hand shielding his eyes from the snowstorm he pushed his way over the light. Idunn was keeled down over top Atreus. Kratos lowers his hands and rushes over to them. She was casting some type of spell onto him. He couldn't see what had injured him yet.

Was it her doing?

His rage was bubbling in his throat. He approached the girl and shoved her aside to look at his son. He was bleeding badly but still breathing.

" _Let me finish!_ " The young girl yells at him through the harsh winds of the storm. The sky was near black with the snow clouds. The light shining through gave off a red hue.

" _Let me heal him, please!_ " She screams up at him. Her eyes were bloodshot and lidded. That's when he hears them approaching. Draugrs. Maybe it wasn't her who attacked him? He stands up and reaches for his axe, then changes his mind and unhooked his blades. Clicking them into his chains.

As soon as both blades felt comfortable in his hands he dropped them and flicked his arms out into the air, the chains uncoiled and aimed at the foe. Centuries of the same movements overlapping one another in a blur as he swung the blades high into the air and rained chaos down upon the poor soul who got into his way. Only when he extended the chains too far did the burning irritate him. "Look out!" Mimir calls from his flank. A draugr swipes at his back. He roars out angrily as he whips his blades out of the limp corpses in front of him. In an instant, while the blades flew high into the air freely he balls up his fist around the chain in his hand and punched the creature in its face. Gravity forcing the blades plummeted down above him. He catches both pommels and while the creature stumbled back from his blow, he stabbed both blades into its chest cavity and ripped the beast open. Glowing orange goo spilling out onto his face.

He kept a close eye on the girl and his boy. She went back to healing him but panic was overwhelming her he could tell. He needed to move the fight further away from the two. He continued fighting wave after wave of monsters all while keeping an eye on his son and the goddess hovering over him. Hands glowing purple and eyes rolled back into her skull.

The snowstorm finally retreated as the last draugr fell to the ground lifelessly. Atreus sat up in Idunn's arms. Kratos rushes over to his boy and kneels down, shoving Idunn away. She fell backward into the snow.

" _The poison still isn't completely cured!_ " the girl says from the ground.

Poison? The creatures he just fought didn't use poison.

Atreus groaned, his body felt hot with fever but his eyes were flickering open.

"Who gave him this wound?"

" _It was...-_ " The goddess froze in the snow. She didn't blink or breath for a moment.

He removed his hands from Atreus, leaning the boy's head back down into the snow. " **Who did this to him?!** " He screams at the little girl.

Her silence spoke volumes to him.

He rises up swiftly and grips her by the wrist and pulls her in the air. Dangling her in front of him.

"What do you want from us?!" He screams at the goddess.

" _ **Put her down!**_ " Atreus screams at him.

Kratos looks over to his son standing next to them. Idunn was sobbing limply in his restraint.

He drops the girl into the snow. No sooner as she lands she stood up and ran into the trees.

"No, wait!" Atreus calls out to her, lunging after her.

Kratos grips his shoulder preventing him from going after her. The girl disappeared from their vision. He spins his son around and looks at him.

It was difficult to temper his emotions.

He almost lost him.

It could have ended as simply as that.

All because he fell for the same ploy.

" _ **Let go of me!**_ " Atreus screams at him.

Kratos grabs his other shoulder and fortified his restraint on the boy.

" **You beg me to not treat you as a child!** " He shouts the first part but soon manages to calm his temper and find his restraint. "Yet time and time again you fail to show me why it is I should not treat you like one!"

" _ **She isn't a threat!**_ " Atreus screams at him. His eyes filled with rage and anger. He was losing himself in an all too familiar way.

"You are not yourself boy. She is the cause for this." He says back to him, loosening his grip on the boy.

"She means to exploit your emotions. And you Atreus, fell for it a second time."

Atreus shoves himself out of his grip.

"No, she isn't, _ **if you would just listen to me!**_ She isn't trying to hurt us."

"Who attacked you?" Kratos says folding his arms.

"You just don't understand, not everyone is trying to kill us. Ugh, I used to think nothing scared you. But I was wrong. Everything and everyone scares you!"

Kratos remains silent as his son continues his mindless outcry of emotions. Soon he would exhaust himself. Until then it would be pointless to try and communicate with him.

" _ **Just because mother was using you doesn't mean everyone else...-**_ "

The back of Kratos' hand smacked viciously across his son's face.

The boy took it like a man, not stumbling back, not gasping. He stood his ground and merely twisted his face into the slap.

The cracking sound it caused echoed through the silent snow covered forest.

Instant regret washed over Kratos. Atreus glared at him silently, a red mark forming at the point of impact.

"Atreus I...-" But before he could finish the boy had stormed off into the forest.

The shame of what he just did paralyze him, he was unable to force himself after his son.


	6. Atreus III

His legs were the only thing he was in full control of. Everything else felt as if it were drowning in a sea of violent emotions.

He was mad. Mad at his father for hitting him. Mad at himself for saying those things about mother. Mad at mother for ultimately causing this whole thing in the first place. Both his parents lied to him. Has everyone in his life just been _tricking_ him? Atreus kept running, following the tracks of Idunn in the snow. He had to be getting close to her. He knows it wasn't her who stabbed him, but that wasn't important now. She was all alone in the forest and whoever did stab him was still out there too.

He struggled to fight back tears. Not allowing a single one to fall from his eyes. Was it the pain from the mark on his face? Or the look on his father's face after he struck him? He didn't know which one was causing the sorrow in his heart. He bottled everything up in a small densely packed ball and swallowed it down in his mind.

He exits the forest and finds the foothills of the mountain they once climbed years ago. High above one of the rocky peaks sat the same golden fox. The animal sat tall and proud, back straight and tail wrapped around its paws tightly. The sun was setting behind the mountain, the glare peeking off the side of the rocks above him. He lifted his left hand and shielded the light from his eyes as he looked up at the fox. It had purple eyes. He had never seen a fox with purple eyes before. The sound of Idunn struggling with something catches his attention. His gaze drifts over towards her. Glancing back momentarily to the fox, it was gone.

Atreus ignored the beast to run after Idunn. She didn't sound hurt, but something was troubling her. Finally, he sees the goddess bent over an open coffin. Her rear end pointed out wiggling around as she groans annoyingly, searching the insides of the oddly familiar looking metal box. He wasn't sure why, but he enjoyed the sight in front of him. He chuckled slightly. "What are you doing?" He asks approaching her.

She shrieked and falls forward into the massive rectangular chest. She panicked, kicking her legs up for a second before pushing her face away from the treasures inside the coffin.

Atreus rushes over and helps pull her out of the bones and broken pottery. She stands up next to him and retreats quickly from his touch.

"It's okay, it's just me," Atreus says calmly. "I'm not going to hurt you."

She sighs and gently starts dusting the bone dust and dirt off her hair and dress. " _Thank you._ " She says to him, before turning back to the coffin and smoothing her hair away from her face, looking through it again.

"What are you doing?" He says again next to her, looking inside.

" _Searching for my apples. Here in Midgard, I left around 7 or 8 of them._ " She picks up a scrap of haze weave and examines it before tossing it aside. " _Mortals never quite knew what to do with them so they usually passed them down from generation to generation._ " She exhales as she gave up her search. Dusting her hands off onto her dress. " _Most humans died off a while ago. Someone told me that my apples may be in these sealed tombs._ "

Atreus pulled his lips into his mouth, biting the skin painfully.

Idunn continued. " _I cannot grow the apples, but perhaps if I find one from these tombs I can extract the seeds and try from there._ "

Atreus kept quiet. He tried remembering how many his father ate. Nine? But were they all in Midgard?

"Would they be in other realms?" He asks. Idunn looks suspiciously at him for a moment. " _I don't think so? Maybe the elves got some from Freyr a few decades ago. But I cannot leave Midgard and ask them._ "

What should he do? He knows his father, he turned over every rock and clay jar for valuables while they were on their journey. He was sure to have found every apple in this world.

Idunn leans forwards at him. "Will you help me look for them?" She was so close to him. He could almost see his reflection in her eyes. It felt as if he was being pulled down into their green fields. Could he drown in a field of grass? It felt that way right now.

"Of course." He says.

* * *

She wasn't very helpful in skirmishes. Whatever attacked them he had to fight off completely alone. He spent most of the battles protecting her instead of fighting off the foes. Sometimes the situations got too intense and them fleeing was the wisest decision. That's what they were doing right now. He was running ahead of her, holding her hand as she struggled to keep up. His bow held tightly in his other hand. The wulver was getting closer and closer to her. " _Atreus!_ " She screamed as it seizes her other hand. He let's go of her and she falls down onto the ground. The wulver let go of her and begins to slash at her.

"Falki lio!" He screams, loosing an arrow at the beast. Several electrically charged falcons flew into the monster, paralyzing him in place. No sooner than Idunn gasped he pulled her up with both hands and ran, dragging her behind him as she struggled to keep up.

They found a small crack in the mountain's walls. "You go in first." He tells her. She lets go of his hand and squeezes herself between the rocks. He throws his bow around his body and follows her. It was tight, but it opened up a good deal the further they went inside. He could hear the sounds of the wolves approaching. He had to get further inside. There was enough space to squeeze in front of her. He did, weaving his body around her until they were tangled up next to each other. Idunn's hand was touching his chest. His left leg was sandwiched between her thighs. She started to murmur something but Atreus quickly shushed her. Not paying attention to their situation, only the monsters outside that mean to kill them.

" _Atreus, can you move your._ " She started saying. He quickly pulls his hand up and covers her mouth. His eyes watching the shadows of the wulver passing right in front of the opening they were huddled inside of. He counted 2 more go past before he noticed the palm of his hand getting damp from covering her mouth. They were followed by 4 possessed wolves. Her breaths becoming more and more apparent, wait, was that another wolf who passed by? He turned to look at her, to look at them. He lowered his hand from her mouth, her breathing now being felt on his cheek and neck. The hand she had pressed up against his chest must have felt his heartbeat right now. Perhaps he thinks, it was beating faster than it was when they were being chased? He shuts his eyes for a moment. Something inside him was pooling up, it felt warm. It felt good. He pulls his lips into his mouth, remembering how much danger they're actually in right now. Shutting off the feeling that couldn't be used in the heat of combat.

"Stay here." He whispers to her. She nodded silently. When she did the tip of her nose brushed up against his skin. Her hair tickling his neck. He shimmied out from in front of her. Her lips exhaling her sweet smelling breath onto his skin one last time. He squeezes himself out of the crack and looks around for a few moments. They were alone again. He reaches his arm inside the wall and motions for her to come outside. With his other hand, he presses his finger to his mouth signaling to remain silent. She nodded at him and made her way out.

" _Are they gone?_ " She whispers.

"Probably not, but we need to keep moving," Atreus says as he creeps forward ahead of her. She follows behind him. " _Wait, I think there is another coffin around here. An apple may be inside it, I'm going to go check._ " She says running off higher up the mountain's path.

Atreus sighed, he knew that chest and there wasn't an apple inside it.

* * *

" _Ugh, it smells disgusting in here,_ " Idunn says looking around the dome like arena as Atreus held the iron gate open for her to enter. Atreus remains silent, the memories of this specific place replaying in his mind. He counted the skeletons on the ground to confirm his memory. He walked up to one off to the side of the room and stood over it. Balling his fist together at his side.

"It'll be too dangerous to sleep outside next to a fire. We'll be opening ourselves up for them to attack us. And it gets too cold at night to sleep without a fire. We'll freeze to death without..-."

She smiles at him, standing in her thin silk dress without any shoes on.

"Well, one of us will freeze to death." He says looking back down to the skeleton. "We'll sleep here for the night."

Idunn walked away from him and extended her hands out. A purple glow emitted from them as her green eyes rolled up into her head. From below the ground, two small apple trees began to sprout inside the room. The tips weaved together several times before exploding out into bushels of branches. Green apples forming along the leaves. The top of the tree that were twisted formed a sealed pocket. It wasn't quite a house, but a more secure form of shelter they could stay in.

"I'm sorry we didn't find any of your apples today," Atreus said biting into a green apple. His face scrunched from the tart sweetness invading his mouth. Idunn sat next to him, her knees almost touching his own.

" _You apologize a lot,_ " Idunn says with her face turned away from him. It was strange the way she said it. If she we not sitting next to him he wouldn't have recognized it was her who said it in the first place.

She quickly turns her head to face him. She was wearing a smile so brightly it was hard to believe it was real. "You're so kind, given how strong you are."

Atreus kept quiet as he continued eating her green fruit.

" _The way you shoot your bow. It reminds me of my mother._ " She trails off suddenly. Atreus wipes his mouth and sets the apple down.

" _I always wanted to learn how to use a bow. I remember how beautiful she looked while fighting with it._ "

"Why didn't she teach you?" He asks.

Idunn sat quietly in the branches of the tree. She folded her hands together on her lap and looks down at them. " _She promised me she would teach me one day when I got a little older._ "

She didn't have to keep going, he had already pieced the next part together.

"My mother taught me how to use it. She died not too long ago." He picked up his bow in his hands. It hardly even looked like the bow his mother presented to him years ago. Brok and Sindri made so many enhancements to it. But in the end, it was still the same one she gave him on his birthday. He slides his fingers down the string, remembering that happy memory. She was right, he did grow into it. As Atreus remembered back to his loving mother, he saw another layer of branches and vines insolate their already densely packed walls. They braided together quickly, blocking out almost all the light shining from outside.

" _Can you teach me?_ " She said, snapping him from his thoughts. It was then he noticed how close she was leaning into him, extremely close.

"Y-Yeah. He said looking at her, avoiding her eyes.

" _Let's try it now!_ " She said standing up. She reaches her hand out to him to help him up. As soon as he stands she waved her glowing hands out in front of her. The walls of their little shelter made from the tree branches extended. Giving them more room to move around.

He looks at his bow for a moment, then offers it out to Idunn.

" _Oh don't worry._ " She said. Her hand reaching out to touch one of the skinny branches. As she strokes the wood it arched into the shape of a bow. A skinny green vine wrapped itself around the edge. She reaches up and snaps the bow off the tree and shows it to him. " _Ta-dah!_ "

He smiles, thoroughly impressed. He examined the weapon over, it was immaculate. How could she create such a fine weapon and not even know how to use it? But before he has too much time to think about it she reaches her hand past his ear. He freezes as she plucks an arrow from his quiver. She nocked the arrow perfectly at first, but then her form quickly fell apart. " _Like this?_ " She asks him. " _Am I doing it right?_ "

Atreus smiles softly. "Not too bad."

" _I'm sure it's all wrong. Show me!_ " She says, arching her head back, motioning for him to come behind her.

He hesitated, but then set his own bow down and moved behind her. He tries remembering how mother used to show him. He reaches out from her armpit and grasps the bow in his hand and holds it up a little more. Then with his other hand reaching around her, he readjusts the hand holding the arrow. He retreated it for a moment and moved her braid off from her shoulder. That gave his room to rest his chin down onto her, now he can see better. He drifts his hand back up to help hold the arrow in place. "Aim up a little more like this." He says movingly the bow upwards. "And then push this down slightly." He says guiding her fingers holding the arrow downward.

"What are we aiming at?" He asks her. His chin presses down onto her silky shoulder, both arms wrapped around her. " _Hmm?_ " She questions. Standing still, allowing him to conduct her every movement. "Well with some things you have to pull the string back a little more in order to get through thick hide or armor." He says.

She turned her face over to him, pressing her cheek into his own. Her sweet smelling breath exhaling from her thin lips. They pull into a smile as she caresses her cheek into his skin.

" _A Giant_."


	7. Kratos IV

(( **WARNING** This chapter contains the following:

 _Sexual abuse, assault of a minor, violence towards women.))_

* * *

" _Narfi's little girl_?" Sindri says looking up from his work over the forge.

" _Her second brat, she also had that singer. Tall fella who's easy on the eyes and easy to get in bed_." Brok said while hammering.

"Only the girl is whom we're after," Mimir said hanging from Kratos' hand. "I didn't exactly get too much time to interact with her before my imprisonment. But I do remember a few stories involving the siblings."

" _Half siblings, everyone forgets that. Same mother, different f-father._ " Sindri adds.

" _Siblings... humph,_ " Brok says, throwing his hammer down while making a disgusted sound. " _S'not the impression I got from 'em last time we met._ "

"When was this?" Kratos finally joined in the conversation.

" _Bout 40 some years ago, give or take. Sigyn came by requesting some daggers he wanted custom made. Fella showered me in money as well as some, other things, I sadly had to decline._ " Brok said scratching his nose. " _Still, I made 'em for the kid._ "

" _What!?_ " Sindri said approaching his brother, Kratos reattached Mimir to his hip and crossed his arms. Remembering Atreus' wound, a small puncture. Clean, right in a vital organ. A dagger blade laced with poison.

"We are leaving." He rumbles, turning away from the dwarfs.

" _Wait... ah, oh forget it._ " Brok started to say as Kratos walked away. When Kratos pauses to face him the blue dwarf shakes his head and waddles back to his anvil. Sindri finished his sentence for him. His face was struggling to hide some sort of twisting pain. " _All she's known is Asgard and whatever Odin and her deplorable brother spoon fed her. She's, not quite... If-If it's at all possible, spare...-_ "

" _Don't you got places to be!? A son to save!?_ " Brok yells loudly.

Kratos says nothing as he walked away.

* * *

He walked up to the open coffin. Nothing left but junk. He already extracted anything of value from it long ago. But that wasn't why he was here. He looks at the bone dust on the ground and sees the two sets of footprints. One of them was wearing boots, the other barefoot. He follows the prints silently. His desire to apologize to Atreus faulted the longer he journeyed to rescue him from this foolishness. Nonetheless, his heart was heavy with remorse for what he had done. Angry at himself for allowing his conflicting feelings for Faye to blind him momentarily. Faye, his light, is forever gone. Jotunheim left a terrible inkling fear in his heart.

Gaia, Athena... was she also someone who... No, there is no time for this. She was not like the others, she was good, she was pure. And for a time, she was his.

He must set this all aside focus on finding their son.

"You ready to talk yet brother? Surely you remember being his age?" Mimir says, dangling from his hip. He doesn't respond, following his son's tracks late into the evening.

* * *

"This place," Kratos said out loud to no one. He remembered, approaching the entrance of the open arena. How old was Atreus at the time? It was two years ago. So it made him ten. He was six when he recalled killing his first man. His mind drifts back centuries ago. A simpler time. A warmer time he thinks, adjusting his shoulders, the night cold was wearing on him. He remembered his little brother crying with a broken nose, his mother soothing his tears with her gentle words. Deimos was always an easy target for foolish boys trying to prove themselves. Kratos remembers what he did to the perpetrator the next day. The bruises on his knuckles, the boy's mother screaming at his own. The way the blood didn't wash out from underneath his fingernails for several days.

As he walks into the doorway he hears something skittering behind him. "Brother look out!" Mimir says, but it ripped away from him. He turns to find a fox with purple eyes holding the head in his mouth. The beast runs off with Mimir. The head screaming obscenities he couldn't quite make out. Before Kratos rushes after the beast he hears a moan. "Atreus?"

He chooses his son over Odin's former adviser. Rushing to open the gate in his path. In the middle of the room, he saw two trees intertwined in each other, forming a semi-sealed wooden cocoon at the very top. From inside he heard his son again. He runs forwards and summons the leviathan into his hands. Chopping into the tree trunks with all his might. He roars with each swing until the tree slumped over and the massive cocoon plummeted down onto the floor.

He could see through the branches. The goddess was mounted over top Atreus. Her mouth pressed down into his own. Atreus kissing her back furiously, his hands exploring underneath her dress. His tunic off to the side, chain mail crumpled up over top of it. He shifted below her. His body covered in bloody black and purple bite marks. She moved her lips away from his own and bit down into his right shoulder. Kratos could, at last, see his son's face. From his once blue eyes spilled forth brown roots creeping down his now decaying face. Almost all life had been drained from him. Blood oozing from the roots in his eyes. His lips thin and white, his forehead collapsing inward slightly. As she bit down harder he cries out in torment first, but she slides her hands down his defiled skin. They disappear inside his trousers. His screaming stops as his shriveled lips pull into a beam of euphoria. She bit another part of his exposed chest.

A rage unlike anything Kratos had ever experienced overtook him. His vision lost all depth perception, the only he could see was Idunn. He wanted to kill this woman, he will. A fire explodes from his skin, he threw himself forwards, shredded the cocoon open and tearing the girl off his son. He held her by the golden braid in her hair and punched her in the back of the head. She screams out in agony as he whips her high in the air and slams her into the ground several times before throwing her in front of him. He roared out in distressed anger, kneeling down over top the young woman. Years of harnessing his rage, tethering it inwards to gain control himself. Gone. He lost himself in his fury, losing count of how many times his fist struck her face.

He lunges forwards to pummel her again but is met with Atreus' hand blocking his blow. Tree roots spiraling down from his blood red eyes and wrapped around his arms and legs. The skin not enclosed by the roots covered with bite marks, hundreds of blue veins pulsing violently from his sickly transparent white skin.

" _STOP! Don't touch her!_ " He said in a voice that was not his own. Then the boy unleashed his electric falcons at him. Kratos jumps back from her body and shields his face. The birds screech around him, paralyzing him as they continue their assault. Atreus helps Idunn stand up. The roots and vines squeezing his son palpitate as Atreus groaned in a haunting torment. Idunn was rejuvenated, now looking more godly than ever. Her hair glowing, her lips plump and full, her body unblemished by the previous onslaught he bestowed upon her. She held his son's bow in her hand as she dusted off her dress. Atreus spoke her words once again. The roots digging deeper into his flesh.

" _I have no desire to fight you Ghost Of Sparta. The Allfather is only interested in the giant. Odin tasked me with retreating him and him alone._ " It was haunting to see Atreus, even in this state, call Kratos that. " _Do not stand in my way of fulfilling his demands_." As he spoke the fox appeared next to him. Holding the head of Mimir in his jaws. An apple gagging his mouth but it did not silence his suppressed screaming.

In a puff of purple smoke, the creature transforms into a young man. Long black hair and purple eyes with an attractive long face. He wore a fox fur cloak that covered his entire body. Kratos didn't wait for an introduction, he didn't care who or what this man was nor what he wanted. With both hands conjoined together in a massive fist above his head, he vaulted over both the young man and Atreus and brought his rage down onto the goddess. He could hear her skull crack as he struck her forehead. He extends one hand to grab hold of her scalp and slid the other hand down to crush her nose into her skull. The roots on Atreus loosening and causing the boy to stumble forward onto the ground, freeing him from her spell. His rage wasn't sated yet. The image of what she was doing to his son still fresh in his mind. With her small limp body below him. He summoned the leviathan and brought both hands to the pommel as he swings it down onto her face. Cracking the goddess open like an egg. He felt two cold stings in both sides of his abdomen. The daggers. He drops the axe as his eyes blink in and out of consciousness. Before he passes out he sees and hears Atreus gasping for air.

When he opens his eyes Gunnr stood above him. The golden tips of her black winged helmet reflecting a blinding light into his eyes. He was still trapped in his rage, he swiped at the Valkyrie. Her wings extended and she easily doges his sluggish ambush.

"It's okay my love." a hauntingly familiar voice whispers softly next to them.

By simply hearing this voice, the fire burning throughout his body diminishes. He regains control over himself.

"Faye?"


	8. Atreus IV

Where was he? What happened? The last thing he remembers was... Idunn. She had started kissing him inside the enclosed apple tree she grew. Atreus didn't know how to kiss but she was showing him. It was so strange, wet, and messy. Apparently, you were supposed to open your mouth? She forced his puckering lips open and drove herself inside him with her tongue. It felt so wet and warm, and...painful. His throat began to swell up so much it was hard to breathe. Was it because he wasn't participating? Should he do the same thing with his mouth? He did, slowly pushing his own tongue against her own until he entered past her teeth. She tasted like the apples drenched in honey. But something was, _off_. He should be enjoying this, right? Why wasn't he enjoying this? Why was it so hard to breath? Was it because of how nervous he was?

Atreus couldn't remember anything else.

* * *

As consciousness finally concerned itself, Atreus noticed a disconnection from his brain to his body. His eyes were on fire as if he poured the beverage he and his father shared for his birthday directly into both purples. He opens them but couldn't see through them. Blinking harshly several times, he tries to force his vision back, but nothing worked. He was blind.

" _Finally up huh? You've got some stamina I'll give you that._ " A velvety voice says.

Atreus didn't recognize whoever was talking to him.

"I can't see." He says to the stranger.

" _Oh I'm sorry, here, let me fix that for you._ " The voice said. Then Atreus felt someone flick him between his eyebrows. It startled him more than it hurt. Causing him to jolt backward, hitting his head on something hard as he fell back. A devilish snicker echoes through the mysterious damp surrounding he found himself in.

"Ow, what was that for!?" Atreus said, his body catching up with his brain. Reflections of pain were cascading down his skin, everything hurt. His face, his arms, his chest. He sits up again, wrapping his arms around his chest and forehead. He was blind, in the clutches of a mysterious figure, his body felt as if someone had mutilated him. Odin, his father was right. All of this, it was a trap. "What, What's happening to me?"

" _More of a has instead of an is._ " The voice says sarcastically.

"Who are you?" Atreus reaches out and touches someone's arm. It was thin and firm, hidden behind a layer of fur, a cloak?

" _Ugh, don't touch me!_ " A hand slapped his touch away. Atreus hears footsteps frantically backing away from him.

" _Disgusting..._ "

"Ugh. Just tell me what's going on!?" Atreus balled his extended hand out into a fist.

" _Why? It's entertaining to watch you squirm._ " The voice says. " _Fine, your father killed my sister, in return I killed your father. I suppose we're even now but sadly Odin isn't...-_ "

Atreus didn't listen to what he was saying anymore.

Father, Idunn.

Both dead?

His chest begins trembling.

That can't be right.

This person was just playing a trick on him.

How, how do you breathe again?

He forgot for several moments as his teeth clenched together. Finally, he felt sick, he threw up in front of himself before he passes out once again.

* * *

Atreus felt a cool hand feather sweetly across his damp forehead.

Mother?

He remembered their cabin, the way it used to look and smell when she was alive. The smell of rosemary and moss, raw leather drying on the beams and aged jams tucked away in clay jars on the shelves. She would sit next to him whenever he was sick. Singing him sweet songs and feeding him the fatty burnt ends of whatever father hunted the previous day. Even though it was father's favorite part of the animal. She still always managed to save him a large greasy chunk whenever he was bedridden like this.

He could hear someone singing right now. Their voice was so beautiful even though the lyrics of this song they were singing were so sad. Atreus felt warm streams of water trailing down his cheeks. Before he could blink his eyes open a wooden spoon is brought to his lips as the singer brought the song into a gentle whisper.

He was home, ' _this had to be mother next to him_ ' he tells himself. Atreus drinks the broth from the spoon. Rabbit and onions. Not his favorite stew but he swallowed every drop desperately. The spoon pulled away before he was finished, causing Atreus to lean his head up and follow it blindly. His lips and teeth bumped into it, spilling warm liquid down his face. Two hands tenderly press against his shoulders, guiding him back to whatever he was leaning against. He then feels a soft cold thumb brush away some of the soup dripping down his chin. Only for the spoon to reappeared by his lips moments later, refilled this time with broth and chunks of meat. He kept eating in blind darkness until sleep overtook him once again.

* * *

Atreus opens his eyes. Light, he could see light again! It burns but he didn't care. He was so happy to remember what vision felt like once again. A mysterious shadow phased in front of his vision. It was so hard to see straight right now, he saw...- a person's face? He blinked his eyes harshly several more times before he could truly bring everything into focus. One last blink and it all reappeared. His vision was finally back. Before Atreus sat a fox, purple eyes and golden fur.

" _Good, about time._ " It spoke to him in the same smooth voice that spoke to him before.

"You, can talk?" Atreus says weakly.

" _Oh, I can do more than that I'm afraid._ " The fox said looking around him. Atreus following its purple eyes while simultaneously examining where he was. He was sleeping on a flat stone in a cave deep underneath the ground. Above him, he saw water dripping slowly off a stalactite. Someone had set a bowl underneath it to catch the icy cool water, inches away from where he was just sleeping. Upon looking at the bowl of water, Atreus realized just how thirsty he was.

" _You can drink it._ " The fox says coyly. " _It won't hurt you or anything. It's only water._ " The creature chuckles.

Atreus gulps the entire bowl down in one take.

"Where are we?" He asked.

" _I can't tell you. But I assure you we are safe from Thor here._ "

"We?" Atreus questions.

The fox lies flat on its stomach. Front paws crossing one over the other. " _Yes, we. After I refused to hand you over to Odin he demanded my head be brought to him on a platter. Luckily for you, he still wants you alive should they ever find us._ "

"Why? Why does he want me?" Atreus says.

The fox sat up and wrapped its long fluffy tail tightly around its body. " _Sorry, I'm not high enough on the food chain to know._ " Its face avoiding his eyes. " _I'm guessing it has something to do with him being a decrepit paranoid fool. Or maybe he just wants a new pretty pet to rub his feet at night and 'entertain' him..._ " It says bitterly.

"Did you really kill my father?" Atreus swings his legs out and touches his feet to the ground. He was fully dressed, except for his boots.

The fox chuckles to itself.

" _You have an interesting family tree. I'll give you that._ "

Atreus looks around for his bow, he couldn't see it anywhere. He feels for his dagger. It too was missing. Idunn tricked him with sweet words and threats of Odin, he wouldn't be tricked again by this fox. There's no way this scrawny little fox could have killed his father. R-right? Atreus began feeling his pulse beating against his neck. He remembered this exact feeling when Mthreatenedtend to kill his father infront of him.

" _Don't try and avenge his death just yet._ " The fox lazily says through a yawn. " _Yes, I did kill your freak of a father._ "

Atreus lunged forwards after the beast. His weak body stumbling as he swings his fists at the fox. The fox dodges his blow but Atreus collapses over top the creature. He quickly grabs hold of the scruff of its neck.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you, you bastard!" Atreus pulls to hard with an unsecured grip as he screams down at the fox. A handful of golden fur rips from the beast's flesh. This gives the animal a chance to kick and flip away from him. Biting his hand before he escapes Atreus' clutches.

" _You..._ _You, miserable little fool!_ " The fox yells out in pain. " _To think I actually took pity on you?!_ " It spits.

Atreus rushes forwards to try and pin down the beast again. The fox easily eludes his attack.

Coughing violently several times, Atreus begins concentrating, gathering his self-control and tempering his anger.

Atreus screams at the fox, his voice cracks. "You'll pay. I'll break every damn bone in your body!" His high pitch childish tone overriding his deeper more mature voice.

The fox snickers. " _So it's true, You really are just some young dumb kid..._ "

Atreus seethed at the animal. He meant what he said. He would kill this creature before him. He felt a hot rage building up in his lungs, the same heat he would feel before his sickness would overtake him. But Atreus was determined this time, he won't let this sickness overtake him after all... he's a god.

" _The fact you're this upset over his death tells me you didn't even know who or what he was! What he is capable of doing to us all!?_ "

"He was **MY FATHER!** " Atreus shouts furiously at the creature as he lunged forth to attack. He held back tears and fell down onto the fox while on his hands and knees, convulsing.

The fox choked a yelp as Atreus brought his jaws around the beast's neck, he could taste its golden fur mixed with appetizing warm blood.

Wait, he was... biting it?

He didn't mean to bite the animal, he wanted to punch it. Atreus pulls his mouth away from the fox, looking down at where his hands should be.

Massive auburn paws with long black claws were where his hands should be.

He returned his leer onto the fox below him. Its pupils dilated and terror seeping from its trembling face. The fox was so tiny now, or, was it just that Atreus himself was bigger?

The fox whimpered woefully beneath Atreus' weight. Its back paws scratching frantically to try and escape his crushing weight. Atreus didn't fully understand what was going on. But he had his father's murderer in his clutches, and he would avenge him here and now.

A rumbling snarl bubbles up in Atreus's throat. As he opens his jaws to kill the fox a long sticky strand of drool drips down and lands in between fearful purple eyes. Atreus growls while chomping down, only for a puff of purple smoke to fill his muzzle and cause his senses to go haywire. He coughed and sneezed several times before he could finally see again. When the smoke disappears the fox was gone, and Atreus had been transported someplace outside.

'A clever trick' he thinks.

He rubs the smoke from his dry eyes. Oh, he had hands again.

Or, wait?

He's always had hands, right?

Where the fox once stood sat his bow and dagger.

He picks them both up and looks around. He needed to figure out where he was before he let his mind settle on how truly alone he now was.


	9. Kratos V

"Faye?" Kratos whispers in a dry cracked voice.

A light stood off in the distance, just as it had in the light of Alfheim. Only this time, he was allowed to approach it without being ripped away. She materialized the closer he got to her. Her yellow dress ruffling gently in a wind he was unable to feel in this unknown location. Her hair was loose and disheveled from the draft. His favorite style he remembered. As if she had just woken up in his arms after a wild night of passion, or taken down after a long day of working outside on their house together. His heart begins to swell as he remembered their first encounter many years ago, the look of determination in her eyes as she swung her axe around. Right now, however, he recalled his favorite memories of her with her hair looking the way it did. The night their son was born.

His body was weak from poison but he forced himself to stand up regardless. Slowly he inched his way over to the light, to Faye.

"Truly?" He questions whatever higher power that was allowing him to look upon her again, sluggishly limping forwards.

Her sapphire blue eyes close and reopen slowly as she nods her face at him.

Kratos pushes through the aching pain his body had endured and began to run as fast as he could towards her. Engulfing her inside his arms.

Was this a trick? He didn't know. But she felt, _so real._

He squeezes her in his grip, her skin feels soft and her curves were all the same as he remembered. He was holding her so tightly, not giving her the ability to return the gesture. He nuzzled his face into her rose petal cheeks before dasing his fingers up and intertwining them into the soft strands of her hair. After he was satisfied he loosened his possession of her ever so slightly and felt soft fingers trace along his lower back. Faye skims her silken tips upwards along his spine until she reaches his shoulders blades. She flattened out her hands and cradles them tightly against his skin.

With his bearded cheek still pressed down onto her own, Kratos drifts his face into her hair and finds her ear. He inhales her familiar scent rosemary and soil. It is her, it truly is her.

" _Kratos._ " She says softly.

"Faye, my light. I-" He struggled to continue. He didn't want to move too abruptly, risking waking from this dream. He needed to stay here a bit longer. He exhales harshly as his nose and forehead make contact with her own.

" _I'm so proud of you. You're doing such a wonderful job._ " She whispers into his face.

"No, no I." He wrestled to say. Years of thinking up what he wishes he could tell her if ever given the opportunity. All the questions he painstakingly wanted to ask. The murals in Jotunheim? Her abilities? Her race and relation with the gods of this land? Suddenly, all the rehearsed dialogue vanishes from his mind as he held her. He fumbled with his next few words. The most important thing right now, was for him atone for his own sins.

"I am sorry for everything I have kept hidden from you. I left you to raise him alone. I should have told you what I was doing. I- I relied so much upon you but in return, I gave you little opportunity to tell me...-"

Faye silenced him with her soft lips. He inhales suddenly, it had been so long since he tasted her, he loses himself inside her mouth. For the next several minutes, he communicated the rest of his thoughts and feelings through this act of passion and love.

Once he felt her tongue no longer dance as intensely with his own did he realize she'd been standing on her tip toes to reach him this entire time. Faye flattened her feet down onto the ground and with this act, pulls away from him. Kratos chases after her mouth one last time before standing straight up to look upon his wife.

"Our son, I have lost him." He begins to say.

" _You're doing such a good job teaching him._ " She says reaching her hand to touch the beard on his chin. Her fingernails gently dig their way past the thicket of course hair and find his skin underneath. He relaxed, remembering how good it felt when she touched him like this.

"No, I have failed him Faye. From the day he was born, I have failed him as his father."

She delicately brushes the tips of her fingers to his lips. Still wet and puffy from their previous kiss.

" _That's not true. You love him, and he loves you. Atreus knows, he adores you Kratos. He understands you because he IS you. You have taught him so much. Things I myself could never convey to him._ "

"Faye." He seized her hand on his face with both hands and nuzzled himself into her palm. "I should have been there for the two of you."

She smiles weakly while allowing him to continue rubbing his dry dirty face along her soft delicate hands.

" _My unpredictable bear, you've made me so happy._ " She rises to her tiptoes again. " _No matter what, know that I have and always will love you._ "

"And I you." He says before kissing her once again.

He pulls away from her slowly to look around. Finally noticing their bizarre location. They stood in a golden chamber with the blue sky above them. The blinding light was emanating off the walls.

"Atreus." He remembered. Kratos backed away from Faye and looked around for any signs of him if this was the afterlife the boy may be here as well. "Atreus!" He called frantically.

" _He is not here, thankfully_ ," Faye says, suddenly holding the leviathan in her hands. He forgot how beautiful she looked while holding it.

"Odin is after him. He was captured by a young goddess. I killed her...-"

Faye interrupted him. She begins speaking quickly as if being rushed by someone or something.

" _Atreus is and will be fine. Our boy is growing into a wise and powerful young entity. He is on the right path, all thanks to you my love. Soon there will be no need to protect him anymore. But until then, you must continue to stay by his side and guide him._ "

"But Faye, I saw him...-"

She interrupted him once again.

" _Idunn's death was necessary. She was never destined to company him once you are gone. Tell Brok and Sindri I'm sorry for their loss._ "

Kratos wrinkles his forehead trying to keep up. "Gone?"

" _Narfi..._ " She trails off, no longer talking to him it seemed.

" _Narfi, my dear friend. So it would seem our children will end up knotted together after all._ " She smiles.

Kratos was lost. "Narfi? The mother of the goddess?"

Faye smiles sweetly at him. She presses her forehead against his chest and nuzzles him.

" _Sigyn. Atreus' future belongs with Sigyn._ "

"The fox?" He says, feeling his abdomen where the poisoned daggers had penetrated him.

" _You must forgive me. I have a hard time myself keeping up with everything I accidentally alternated._ " She chuckled.

Kratos was still terribly confused. The young man with purple eyes, was Atreus' destiny?

" _Atreus, he is looking for you Kratos._ "

"He is alive?"

She nods.

"Then I must find him!" Just then, Sigrun and the other Valkyries appear, surrounding them from a distance.

He let's go of her and backs away slightly to set off and search for his son. Only to look back and realize what he would have to give up in order to do so.

Wordlessly he inhales through his mouth and embraces his wife for what could be his final time. He pulls her face away with both hands to look at her. He memorizes her image, imprinting every feature in his mind. Her blue eyes, button nose, freckles sprinkled throughout her cheeks. Her lips the way they were so often red and puffy from her pulling them inside her mouth. He needs to taste them one more time.

He does.

" _Kratos, your axe. It's the key._ " She says pressed against his mouth. " _When our grand-_ " She faded from existence momentarily. " _When the world serpent threw it back to you he enchanted it with his poison. Thor is on his...-_ "

She vanished.

He leans forward as his support vanishes, tripping over the imbalance for a moment. Frantically, Kratos gathered the space in front of himself looking for her touch again. But she was gone.

The leviathan sat on the ground by his feet. Silently he reaches for it and attaches it to his back. The Valkyries disappear, and the light in the room fades to black.

" **For saving our eight lives.** " Sigrun says in a booming powerful voice, " **We are each indebted to you**."

* * *

Kratos gasps awake to find Atreus above him. Several resurrection stones broken on top of his chest.

He sits up with a groan. His senses coming back all at once. Atreus held a hand on his back to help support him.

" _Father!_ " The boy says breathlessly.

His son. He thought he had lost him forever to Idunn, to the Aesir.

" _I- I was so worried the stones wouldn't work. It's been so long, I don't even know how many days have...-_ "

Kratos pulls his son into his chest to embrace him. The boy gasped and stiffened for a moment while Kratos squeezed his son tightly.

He pulls him away and examined the boy with his eyes and hands. Idunn's roots, they were here, here, and here. He thinks while touching Atreus' arms, ankles, and eyelids.

" _I'm fine, I promise,_ " Atreus says.

Kratos nods approvingly as they both rise to their feet. This time Atreus leans in to hug him. He was getting so tall Kratos realized. His forehead touching where Faye's chin recently pressed against.

He reaches up to embrace him again but pauses to simply pat him on the head softly. "Come." He whispers.

Atreus nods, doing his best to hide his watery eyes. Kratos made sure to look away when a tear slips down Atreus' cheek. After the boy quickly wipes it away he followed behind Kratos as they made their way back home.

" _Wait, where's Mimir?_ " Atreus asks.


	10. Atreus V

Atreus froze as his father held him in his massive arms. He couldn't remember the last time, or if ever, father had hugged him like this. His grip was rough and overbearing, he could still breathe, but he had to put in more effort to do so. Father released him suddenly, touching his face, arms, and legs. The parts of Atreus that still aches. Did he know what caused this? He wanted to ask him, but the look on father's face was so distracting. What emotion was this? Fear? Relief? Maybe It was a mixture of the two? it caused father's face to soften in a way he had never seen before. "I'm fine, I promise," Atreus says.

His father nodded approvingly as they both stood up.

Father, he almost lost him, no, he _did_ lose him. Atreus looks down at two dagger wounds in his sides. Someone tried assassinating him. The fox, he will never forget or forgive that damn animal. Vowing to kill the wrenched thing if he ever sees it again. Father looked exhausted, what was he even doing out here? How long was he searching for him? Even after their _incident,_ father still risked everything to try and find him. To save him. Atreus rushes into his father's chest and hugs him. Angry that he wasted his chance earlier. Emotions were overriding his actions. Why was he about to cry? He held back as much of his hysteria as he could muster. He felt his father's hand on top of his head as he orders him to come along. Atreus felt one tear to escape, quickly turning away from his father's gaze. Looking down at his hip where Mimir.

"Wait...- Where's Mimir?"

Father's eyes widened for a moment. " _He is not with you?_ "

"No, I can't even remember the last time I've seen him?" Atreus says.

An all too familiar irritated rumble erupted from his father's throat.

" _We will search on our way back._ " He begins walking away. " _If we do not come across him, he is lost to us._ " Atreus opens his mouth to protest, but his father was walking quickly away. He noticed a slight limp from his left leg.

* * *

Atreus would occasionally yell out Mimir's name every so often. Straying away from his father's sight while searching. 'Not here' he tells himself while jogging over to his father's side. They hadn't spoken since they began traveling back home. Atreus still struggling with how upset he was when father...-

" _I am sorry._ " His father interrupted his thoughts.

Atreus froze in place upon hearing his father's words.

" _I should not have struck you._ " Father stopped moving forwards but kept his back facing Atreus.

"I'm so sorry I said those things about mother." He says looking at his back. Father rotated his neck slightly and looks at him from over his shoulder.

" _You are right, I am afraid. My greatest fears involve you._ " He says softly before facing forwards and continuing walking away.

Atreus smiles weakly and chases after him, father was afraid of him? He had to be joking, so he went along with it. "I've noticed more and more mortals cowering in fear when they see me. I guess I have that effect?" Atreus still couldn't see his father's face yet, but he did notice his beard shifting upwards slightly. Was he smiling? He quickened his pace in order to walk side by side with his father.

"I don't think mother was using you. Sure maybe she knew everything but..-"

" _Your mother loved me, almost as much as I love her. This is all that matters._ " Father said in a raspy voice.

Atreus kept quiet, it was awkward to hear father even say the word love. He never saw his parents intimacy. They never hugged or held hands or kissed in front of him. Deep down part of him felt happy listening to him speak these words.

"Remember the night you brought home that weird monster looking red fish?" Atreus says with a smile.

" _An octopus._ " Father's face softened.

"You were so excited to have mother cook it, but she didn't know how. Its slimy tail things kept freaking her out and she screamed every time one moved."

Kratos chuckled. Atreus kept going with the story instead of pointing out his father's laughter.

"Finally when you stepped in and showed her how to prepare it, and it shot that black ink stuff all over the place. Gosh, I've never seen you so nervous before." Atreus had to take a break from the story to stop laughing so much. His father's raspy chuckles were causing his shoulders to rise up and down. "Mother was furious at the mess it made. Then, when you tried wiping your hands on her loom, she lost it! She chased you out of the house with your- with her axe. I mean, there you are an all-powerful god. And mom, she was so much smaller than you. To see her have that much of an impact on you? It was so funn-..."

Atreus suddenly noticed his father had stopped laughing. His tired face was pointed up at the sky, Atreus couldn't see his eyes, only the heavy concaved bags of skin underneath them. " _Faye..._ "

"I miss her so much," Atreus says while avoiding his father's heartbreaking expression. He gave his father the same respectful distance he gave him upon their reunion and embrace.

* * *

They reach the house to see two glowing eyes staring from inside mother's overgrown garden. "Mimir!" Atreus shouts.

"Yer shitting me," Mimir calls out to the two of them. Kratos picks the head up as Atreus dusts off the leaves and moss.

"I was so worried, I didn't think we would find you," Atreus says.

"I'm touched, didn't know if you two would even be coming back, to be honest..."

"Of course we would come back and find you!" Atreus says, not quite fully grasping the severity of Mimir's previous statement. "We're family after all!"

Atreus saw the head's lower lip twitch upwards slightly as his glowing eyes softened. Mimir opened his mouth to say something For once, the head was speechless.

" _How did you get here?_ " Father asks him.

"That damn fox Sigyn. He brought me all the way out here in his mouth... don't suppose I can catch a genital disease anymore? Still, I would very much appreciate it if one of you gentlemen could be so kind as to submerge my entire head in a bowl of the strongest brown ale you come across. Just to be sure."

"He?" Atreus questions, letting most of what he said fly over his head while remembering the fox. "'Sigyn,' what a weird name."

Come to think of it, Atreus never really pinned down the identity of the fox in the cave. He remembered almost seeing a face, but. It was all still so jumbled. The fox must've been taking care of him, even after what it did to father. He remembered how much he wanted to kill it. How much it caused his rage to get the best of him, Atreus bit its neck for goodness sake! Why would he do that? Before he could dwell on it he remembers how delightful he found the fox's blood to be.

The taste still lingering in his mouth.

 _Pretty little fox._

 _He wanted to see those petrified purple eyes begging for mercy one more time._

 _He wanted to feel its paws scratching furiously against his belly before he swallowed...-_

" ** _Boy!_** " Father said loudly.

Atreus shook himself from his sudden feral thoughts.

"Sorry, What were you saying?"

Mimir looks at him questionable for a moment then continues. "I was asking if happened upon fox anyplace? Did he try talking to you or hurting you? He's a dangerous lad, don't let those good looks and perfect hair fool you. Odin kept that boy on a tight leash and not just for his entertainment."

Atreus shakes his head. "No, I don't remember ever seeing a fox." He lied.

"And the lass? Where's Idunn?"

Father adverted his eyes and kept quiet.

"Father killed her," Atreus said painfully. He still had so many unanswered questions about what happened between the two of them.

Kratos lowers the arm holding Mimir's head and turns to look at Atreus silently, suspiciously.

"Sorry laddie, I know how much you were beginning to care for her. Did you inform her brothers?" Mimir said.

"Brothers? Are we still talking about Sigyn?"

"I don't expect him to take her death very well... But no, I mean her other siblings. The dwarfs."

"Brok and Sindri?!" Atreus shouts. "They were her brothers?!"

Kratos suddenly pulls his suspicious stare away from Atreus and looks down to Mimir. " _Explain yourself head._ "

"Was picking my brain while sitting next to an overgrown potato plant, trying to remember everything I knew about the girl. It may be no big surprise for you." Mimir says looking at Kratos for a moment. "But most gods are all related in some form or fashion. Idunn's mother was an Aesir goddess named Narfi. One day she just, disappeared. Her father claimed she must have run away from home. Shifty son of a bitch didn't seem too broken hearted over it, but Narfi had a dozen or so sisters that dedicated everything waking moment trying to find her. A year later she returns on the shoulders of a frost troll, belly swollen with his bastard. That baby would soon grow up to be Sigyn. Odin was _furious_ , ready to kill the troll thinking he kidnaped one of his own. Narfi pleaded for mercy. Saying she'd do anything for Odin if he'd spare her beloved. With a wicked grin, Odin agreed and sent the troll back to Niflheim where it belonged. After Narfi gave birth to Sigyn Odin took the child under his wings and taught him how to kill with not only his hands but his words. Narfi was sent over as a gift to the realm's most talented weapon smith at the time. Ivaldi."

"Wait." Atreus interrupted. "Like Niflheim Ivaldi? The workshop with all the poison?"

"That's the one! Granted, this was back when he and Odin were still on speaking terms. Odin hoped this act would bridge them from acquaintances to business partners. By this time Ivaldi had dozens of sons, the two most promising being the Huldra brothers themselves. Odin wanted a certain hammer forged but he needed to convince the two boys he was in good standing with their family. The promise of a godly offspring was too tempting to pass up. So Narfi was forced to marry the decrepit old man while her breasts were still heavy with milk for her son. Sure enough, he put a child in the poor gal not long after that. The goddess Idunn. Ivaldi was _lived_ it wasn't a son. He forced himself upon Narfi every night in the hopes of producing a boy but never again did she became pregnant. No one could figure out why? Ivaldi would blame her for all of this, abusing the poor gal day and night. Until one day while he was lost in his anger towards his wife, a frost troll appeared and destroyed everything in his workshop! He beat Ivaldi to a fraction of his life but only stopped when Narfi begged him to. Together the two escaped with baby Idunn into the mountains and remained missing for several years.

Thor eventually found them. Odin was going to have all 3 killed but his pet Sigyn asked him to spare the toddler. Then, right there in the middle of Odin's throne room, still in a diaper, Idunn grew an apple tree. Dozens of golden apples of rejuvenation hung upon it. Freya ate one and her saggy tits damn near lifted right up out of her golden breastplate! Hahaha! Odin told Sigyn he could keep Idunn, as long as he ' _took care of_ ' Narfi and the troll. I never saw the two ever again, nor did I see much of the wee girl for that matter."

Mimir finished his story. Atreus had pulled his lips into his mouth to distract him from the overall tragedy of it. His fist hurt from clenching them so tightly. Poor Idunn, sure she tried to kill him, sure she was crazy but... He still felt terrible. He wasn't mad at his father for killing her, he knew better. Father wouldn't just kill any god unless there was a good reason, at least, not anymore. Yet hearing her backstory made his heart hurt.

He thinks back to Magni and Modi. They were terrible too. Did they also have a tragic backstory? Something that humanized them from simply being 'the bad guys' his mother and father taught him? They could just people with hopes and dreams fears and family. He thought of Baldur and Freya, they too had their own history.

What about Thor?

Atreus licked his lips as they were pulled into his mouth. He remembers kissing her, how pretty she was, but more importantly, how kind she was. His heart aches for some reason. Not as much, but in the same way it ached after mother died.

" _Enough._ " Father said walking into the house. Atreus didn't realize how dark it was getting.

They walk into their little cabin and put their weapons away. Atreus collapses onto his bed with a sigh. His father was already snoring, he had forgotten to take Mimir off his belt. Before Atreus could say anything his eyes begin drifting closed as sleep approached him. He could hear mother's wind chime singing outside.

* * *

A lightning bolt cracked violently atop their roof. The shock wave shaking Atreus at his very core. "What was that?!" He screamed at his father as they both shot up in their beds. Wait, this seemed so familiar...

" _Your bow!_ " Father says urgently.

As Atreus picks his weapon up off the ground he hears another violent crack of lightning. Their entire house shakes as if it were being ripped apart. Father pulls his axe from the wall and storms to the front door. Throwing it open as another lightning bolt strikes their house.

Outside a cloaked man stood before them. Blue lightning shimmering down his entire body.

" _WHO ARE YOU?!_ " Kratos shouts to him over the thundering lightning. The man does not reply. He simply summons a hammer crackling with electricity into his hands.

"Thor..." Atreus says, hiding slightly behind his father.

 _ **The end.**_


End file.
